VANCOUVER businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik who had been acquitted in the 1985 Air India bombing case in 2005 was shot dead in Surrey on Thursday morning.
Sources tell The VOICE that Malik may have been targeted because he reportedly wrote a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing his “deep heartfelt gratitude” for the unprecedented positive steps taken by his government for the Sikh community, as reported by the Hindustan Times newspaper of India on January 18.
Surrey RCMP said in a press release that on Thursday at 9:26 a.m., they responded to a report of shots fired in the 8200-block of 128 Street. Police located a man suffering from gunshot wounds.
The man was provided first aid by attending officers until Emergency Health Services took over his care. The injured man succumbed to his injuries on scene.
“This appears to be a targeted shooting,” police said.
A suspect vehicle was located in the 12200-block of 82 Avenue fully engulfed in fire.
The investigation is in the early stages and police are still looking for the suspects and a second vehicle that may have been used as a getaway vehicle.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) has been called in to investigate.
Anyone with information about this incident, dash camera footage or video surveillance from the area is asked to contact the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502, or Crime Stoppers, if they wish to remain anonymous, at 1-800-222-8477 or www.solvecrime.ca.
According to the Hindustan Times, Malik wrote to Modi: “I am writing you this to express my deer heartfelt gratitude for the unprecedented positive steps taken by yourself to redress long-reading Sikh demands and grievances including elimination of blacklists that restricted visit to India of thousands of Sikhs living abroad, grant of passports and visas to asylees and their families, reopening of hundreds of 1984-riots closed cases leading to conviction and jail term for some, declaring 1984-riots as ‘genocide’ by then Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh on the floor of the House, giving compensation or Rs. 5.00 lakh per family of the anti-Sikh genocide victims, opening of Sri Kartarpur Saheb Corridor facilitating pilgrims from India to visit the revered place of our first Master Guru Nanak Dev Ji.”
